The OEM, through a new document, has said many clones are “often sold as ‘remanufactured’” and are “neither the real thing nor environmentally responsible”.
Industry supplier Biuromax posted on Facebook the information release from the OEM, stating that Xerox has said “buyer beware, cloned toner is not what it appears to be”. The Xerox document starts by noting that clones are “100 percent new-build cartridges produced by third-party manufacturers to look like the real thing”, and are “often sold as ‘remanufactured’ and with a strong environmental message”.
It points out that clones “are neither the real thing nor environmentally responsible”, and stated that the products are “offered in the marketplace at a discount” compared to the OEM, but while they “appear to be less costly […] they aren’t”, as “image quality is low, failure rates are high, damage to the printer is common and these are not even the most serious issues”.
It then segments the remainder into three questions, with the first “who manufactured that clone cartridge? What chemicals are inside?” On this, it notes that “since the majority of clone cartridges are manufactured in Asia and sold under a variety of aliases, it’s never clear who manufactured the cartridge. That may be intentional”. In turn, “while it may look like an OEM cartridge on the outside, what’s inside matters most, especially for health reasons” in toxicity and exposure risk terms.
The second, “clones and environmental distress: how does it affect you?”, notes that the products are “destined for landfill”, and that “unlike OEM and legitimate remanufacturers, clone manufacturers realise that the low quality does not enable remanufacturing and therefore rarely take back spent cartridges. The remaining disposal option is a landfill”.
Finally, the OEM points out that “clones will cost you more. Much more”, noting that “patent, trademark and copyright violations” force OEMs “to spend millions in court”, and that “you help pay to fight illegal clones”, because “these costs are ultimately passed on to you in the form of higher cartridge prices”.
The products offer “higher failure rates” and “poor image quality”, with clones copying the OEM cartridges, “don’t use any OEM hardware or toner”, and “sacrifice quality for the lowest possible cost”. A common issue is “catastrophic leakage within the printer and contamination of critical xerographic components”, and “often the cost of replacing the printer exceeds the cost of replacing it”.
Image quality is “often poor and unpredictable”, and results in “unimpressive, unprofessional, undesirable output”, with fewer pages meaning “higher costs”. The company noted that that “page yield is often below OEM cartridges, resulting in more frequent replacement and eliminating any true savings”.